“If one’s argument for civilization holds that wild predators should never roam in broad daylight through the boroughs of America’s largest, loudest, most radically urban metropolis, then, truly, the end of civilization had arrived on paw prints in the snow.”
“The arachnologist W. S. Bristowe calculated in the 1930s that, at certain seasons, a meadow in south-east England may contain more than two million spiders to the acre.”
“Linguistically, English is an outlier in differentiating between moths and butterflies. In French, there are butterflies (papillons) and night-butterflies (papillons de nuit). German (Tagfalter and Nachtfalter) and Dutch (vlinder and nachtvlinder) adopt similar approaches.”
— James Lowen, Much Ado About Mothing: A year intoxicated by Britain’s rare and remarkable moths🔗
“In an age characterised by nature-deficit disorder, I seek liberation through sensitising myself to moths’ seasonality.”
— James Lowen, Much Ado About Mothing: A year intoxicated by Britain’s rare and remarkable moths🔗
“One moth addict I meet confesses that ‘the hobby takes over your life, no two ways about it,’ but flusters that his partner prefers him to be ‘infatuated with mothing than taking drugs or eyeing up other women.’”
— James Lowen, Much Ado About Mothing: A year intoxicated by Britain’s rare and remarkable moths🔗
“Migrant mothing is the art of the possible – but so often the ‘possible’ remains precisely that.’”
— James Lowen, Much Ado About Mothing: A year intoxicated by Britain’s rare and remarkable moths🔗